Rohingya Crisis In Southeast Asia: The Jihadi Dimension – Analysis

The Rohingya problem is an old one. After nearly 70 years, the problem has been greatly aggravated by rising sectarian violence by radical Buddhist groups against Muslims and the involvement of transnational terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda and the self-proclaimed Islamic State.

By Jasminder Singh*

The Rohingya crisis in Myanmar has a long history. Following Burma’s independence in January 1948, a Rohingya-based insurgency broke out in northern Arakan, now known as Rakhine State, with the aim of integrating with East Pakistan, present-day Bangladesh. By the late 1950s, the mujahidin-oriented insurgency was crushed by the Burmese Army. Since the 1970s, various Islamist groups have surfaced to take up the cudgels of liberation, either to gain greater autonomy or outright independence.

The key groups championing the Rohingya struggle include the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation, the Arakan Rohingya Islamic Front and Arakan National Liberation Organisation. Following the success of the Afghan Mujahidin in defeating the Soviets, since the 1980s, extremist jihadi-oriented groups have espoused violent struggle against Myanmar, often with the support of Af-Pak based radical groups and by the late 1990s onwards, groups affiliated with Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Al Qaeda Support for the Rohingya

Even though Al Qaeda had existed since the late 1990s, it only began to show interest in the plight of the Rohingya since 2013. Hence, at the 12th anniversary of the 911 Incident, Ayman al-Zawahiri referred to the persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar. In August 2014, Zawahiri launched the Al Qaeda of the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) which included Myanmar as its area of operations.

In 2014, Al Qaeda’s affiliates also began expressing support for the need for jihad in Myanmar in support of the Rohingya. In 2015, a key Al Qaeda affiliate in Africa and South Asia, the al-Shabaab and the Pakistan Taliban, respectively, expressed support for the Rohingya, calling for jihad against the Buddhists in Myanmar for supposedly persecuting Muslims.

Abu Zar Burmi, an ethnic Rohingya who emerged as a leading jihadist in Pakistan, also called for revenge against the persecution of the Rohingya. Equally important was the support of Al Qaeda’s affiliates in Bangladesh for a jihad in Myanmar, with one of them believed to be training Rohingya for combat operations.

Islamic State’s Support for Rohingya

At the launch of Islamic State (IS) in July 2014, the self-proclaimed caliph, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi called for the need of a jihad in Myanmar. The 14th edition of Dabiq quoted Shaykh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif, the amir of the Islamic fighters in Bengal, talking of a jihad in Bangladesh as a stepping stone to Myanmar. There were numerous occasions when pro-Islamic State groups in Bangladesh called for a jihad in Myanmar to support the Rohingya, including the Jama’tul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), the key IS affiliate.

Pro-IS Southeast Asian groups, especially in Indonesia have also joined the call to punish Myanmar for persecuting the Rohingya. In November 2016, an Indonesian pro-IS group planned to bomb the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta, just as the Malaysian police detained an Indonesian en route to Myanmar to support the Rohingya.

Pro-IS groups in Pakistan and India, such as the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Indian Mujahidin, have also supported the call for jihad in Myanmar. The Rohingya are also reported to be operating with Southeast Asian jihadist groups, as in Poso, Indonesia to support pro-IS groups and in South Mindanao as part of the Wilayah Philippines under Emir Isnilon Hapilon.

Factors Driving Al Qaeda and IS Support

Several factors explain the decision of Al Qaeda and IS to support the Rohingya. First, both groups can no longer ignore the plight of the Rohingya as this has been spotlighted in the mainstream and new media in a big way since 2012. To ignore a cause celebre of Muslim persecution would be self-defeating.

Second, as both IS and Al Qaeda are under pressure from coalition forces, both have decided to attack their ‘Far’ and ‘Near’ enemies rather than simply focus on the former as it did in the past.

Third, it is driven by the rising competition between Al Qaeda and IS for influence, especially in areas where there are conflicts afflicting Sunni Muslims. It is not just to become the preeminent global jihadi group but more important, due to the rising importance of South and Southeast Asia as safe havens, sources of finance and even targets for operations, especially as the Middle East recedes in importance.

Finally, and in particular for Al Qaeda, it is a golden opportunity to recover from its decline globally and being displaced by IS since 2014. By championing the Rohingya cause, it hopes to reverse its fortunes, which it has succeeded somewhat in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In this regard, both Al Qaeda and IS are not merely looking for supporters for their ideological and jihadi cause but also believe that they have a legitimate excuse to support persecuted Muslims in Myanmar.

Consequences of Al Qaeda and IS Support

It looks as though a front for prolonged jihad somewhat akin to southern Philippines and southern Thailand is taking shape in northwest Myanmar. Al Qaeda and IS have capitalised on the image of a persecuted Rohingya community ripe for recruitment and their support for the Rohingya has upped the ante of jihadi violence in Myanmar. Through direct and indirect support for the Rohingya, the seeds of jihadi doctrine and ideology are being planted and that may put the community on an irreversible trajectory of violence.

Both transnational terrorist groups have succeeded in seeding radicalism and terrorism in Myanmar and the surrounding region. The planting of a Muslim insurgency in Myanmar through the Rohingya crisis will take decades to overcome, especially since a haven for Rohingya has emerged at the Bangladeshi border.

As the October 2016 jihadi attack in north western Rakhine State by an Al Qaeda cum IS-supported group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army previously known as Haraqa al-Yaqin, demonstrated, jihadi violence can no longer be handled by Myanmar alone. Myanmar would need to solve its Rohingya problem through political accommodation while at the same time enhancing counter-terrorism cooperation with South and Southeast Asian states.

Jasminder Singh is a Senior Analyst with the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR), a constituent unit of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

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RSIS

RSIS Commentaries are intended to provide timely and, where appropriate, policy relevant background and analysis of contemporary developments. The views of the author/s are their own and do not represent the official position of the S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), NTU, which produces the Commentaries.

Richard 147 is correct in stating that “The Bengali-Muslim ( Rohingya) have been terrorists since 1942” when the British ruled most of South Asia including the current countries of Myanmar, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. In early 1942, as the Japanese were advancing towards Arakan (Ralkine state in Myanmar), the British formed a battalion of Muslims – called the Bengali V Force – and gave them weapons. As the British suddenly retreated – the Bengali Muslims (now so-called Rohingya) quickly used the weapons – not against the Japanese -but they used them to slaughter thousands and thousands of Buddhists and burned down all of the Buddhist villages, pagodas, temples and monasteries in the Maungdaw and Buthidaung areas. About 30,000 Rakhine Buddhist were killed in this absolute genocide, hundreds of villages were burned down, and around 100,000 Rakhine Buddhists were ethnically cleansed from their ancestral lands. By late 1942 the whole Maungdaw-Buthidaung region was firmly in the hands of Bengali Muslims – who were now well armed with abandoned Japanese and British weapons. Active Islamic Terrorism and de facto ethnic cleansing of Rakhine Buddhists and Bengali Hindus continues to this day in the area.

It seems that the basis of the articles is based in half-truths and Islamophobic rhetoric. In media reporting the Rohingya’s tragic suffering is sometimes misrepresented as communal violence, when in reality they are the victims of a persecution. Identifying the situation in Burma (Myanmar) accurately is very helpful.

Despite denial and contrary claims by the Burmese (Myanmar) government, seven Nobel laureates – Desmond Tutu, Mairead Maguire, Jody Williams, Tawakkol Karman, Shirin Ebadi, Leymah Gbowee, and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel- have described the persecution as a genocide, and along with the international community agree the Rohingyas are indigenous to Burma (Myanmar).

The Lowenstein Clinic, Yale University Law School, in their study to what is happening in Burma, amounts to “strong evidence” of genocide coordinated by the Burmese (Myanmar) government against the Rohingya people. It assessed evidence, including documents and testimonials provided by Al Jazeera and Fortify Rights.

Former Special Rapporteur Jose Quintana speaks of the movement towards genocide and the current rapporteur speaks of “worrying signs” of genocide.

While it seems clear that the idea of genocide is embarrassing to the international community, it cannot and should not be for writers, journalists and news outlets. They have an obligation to report the facts, and report free from the burden of geopolitics.

The Dalai Lama has publicly urged fellow Nobel Peace Laureate Aung Sun to speak out on behalf of the Rohingya community and help stem the violence in her country against Rohingya by Buddhist extremist groups.

The situation of the Rohingya has deteriorated significantly since large-scale “clearing operation”attacks against Rohingya in Rakhine State in 2016. Aung Sung lost much of her credibility as an icon for democracy, by refusing to speak out on behalf of the Rohingya minority. Neither the USDP nor the NLD have done anything to reinstate the Rohingya’s right to vote, reverse discriminatory laws, and stop extremist violence.

There is no question that the human rights situation must be addressed. I greatly appreciate your article and am hopeful that the awareness it raises will contribute in stopping the ongoing genocide in Myanmar.

In the book Weapons of Mass Migration: Forced Displacement, Coercion and Foreign Policy, Kelly M. Greenhill, US foreign policy consultant, ..coercive engineered migration is a strategy which has been used by governments to gain concessions from other governments. In other words, (western imperialist governments, George Soros and their islamic collaborators) often use (Bengali Muslim) refugees as weapons in order to exert pressure on other governments (Myanmar) for political ends (to contain China and spread islam)…

In the 19th century the British Empire organised the mass migration of Bengali Muslims to Burma to work plantations in the predominantly Buddhist Rakhine State. The purpose of the migration was to create an artificial ruling class that would depend on the protection of the British Empire. The result was more than a century of tension with the indigenous Buddhist inhabitants and the Muslim settlers, a tension that has led to the ethnic cleansing of today, whereby Takfiri fanatics, financed by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are committing genocide through muslim Bangladesh against local Buddhist peasants with the full complicity of UN, ‘human rights’ organizations and noble laureates, NGOs (George Soros) and the mass media as part of a US geostrategic initiative to “kossovise” the Rakhine State by separating it from Myanmar, thereby securing a foothold for Western neo-colonial interests in the highly strategic Bay of Bengal. The so-called ‘Rohingya crisis’ attests to a new phase in imperialist policy; namely, the ruthless weaponization of the refugee….

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